A woman who claimed a man shot and killed himself has pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, the Griffin Judicial Circuit district attorney said Monday.
Renita Thomas was sentenced to 20 years, with the first 15 to be served in prison, according to DA Marie Broder.
On Oct. 6, 2020, Griffin officers were called to Ellis Road on a report of a possible suicide, the DA’s office said. There, officers found Johnny Whitlock on the living room floor with a gunshot wound to the chest. Whitlock, 40, died from his injuries.
“The defendant told officers that Mr. Whitlock shot himself,” the DA’s office said in a statement. “The evidence in the case, however, was that Ms. Thomas was holding the weapon when the shot was fired.”
Thomas was moved last week from the Spalding jail to Arrendale State Prison to begin serving her sentence, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections.
